O’Neill Quits as Australian Rugby Chief to Focus on Echo Role

John O’Neill stood down as chief
executive officer of the Australian Rugby Union after a total of
14 years in the job in which he helped the sport’s transition to
professionalism and later expansion.

O’Neill, who had planned to end his second stint as
Australian rugby’s top administrator in late 2013, said he’s
leaving to focus on business commitments following his
appointment as chairman of Echo Entertainment Group Ltd. (EGP)

“It sort of brought me to a fork in the road a bit sooner
than I might have expected,” O’Neill, 61, said today in a news
conference in Sydney. “It just made sense to reach a decision
by mutual agreement that I’d bring forward my departure date.”

O’Neill will leave on Oct. 31 and Matt Carroll, his deputy,
will act as CEO from Nov. 1 while a global search is conducted
for a long-term replacement, the ARU said.

The governing body will head to the marketplace at the same
time as rival sport rugby league, which is seeking a CEO to head
up the Australian Rugby League Commission after David Gallop
stepped down in June.

O’Neill, a former banker, ran the Sydney-based ARU from
1995 to 2004, during which time rugby shed its amateur status
and Australia won the 1999 Rugby World Cup and hosted the global
championship four years later.

He left to join Football Federation Australia in March
2004. During his three-year tenure, soccer joined the sporting
mainstream in a country that historically preferred three other
football codes. The Socceroos qualified for the World Cup for
the first time in 32 years and O’Neill helped negotiate
Australia’s move to the Asian Football Confederation and revamp
the domestic league.

ARU Return

O’Neill returned to the ARU in June 2007 and appointed the
Wallabies first non-native coach in New Zealander Robbie Deans
six months later. In 2011, Australia added a Super Rugby
franchise in Melbourne, the traditional heartland of the
Australian Football League.

Deans guided the Wallabies to their first southern
hemisphere championship in a decade last year and the team
finished third at the 2011 Rugby World Cup after losing to host
New Zealand in the semifinals.

Although the Wallabies are currently second behind the All
Blacks in the International Rugby Board’s world rankings,
Deans’s position has been the subject of speculation in the
Australian media after the team lost four of its 10 Tests in
2012, including a first home defeat to Scotland in 30 years.

O’Neill said he’s staying in rugby with roles as an ARU
delegate to the International Rugby Board and a board member of
Rugby World Cup Ltd., the organizing body for the four-yearly
championship. The next edition is 2015 in England.

‘Other Commitments’

“John’s commitment to the game over such a long period of
time has been extraordinary and we know that will continue in
the future,” ARU Chairman Michael Hawker said in a statement.
“We understand that he also has other commitments and we wish
him well in those endeavors.”

Echo, operator of Sydney’s only casino, is facing rival
stake builds from James Packer’s Crown Ltd. (CWN) and companies
associated with Lim Kok Thay’s Genting Bhd. (GENT), with both groups
asking gambling regulators for permission to buy up to 25
percent of the company.

Echo has faced several departures in recent months, with
O’Neill’s predecessor John Story quitting in June after a
campaign by Packer. Non-executive director Brett Paton resigned
last month, and chief executive officer Larry Mullin announced
his departure Sept. 27.

“The Echo Entertainment subject is not one that I need to
go into a lot of detail on,” O’Neill said today. “My arrival
there as chairman was certainly not on my bucket list. It came
out of the blue and rightly or wrongly I was the person chosen
to take over the chairmanship of that company at a pretty
challenging time.”